The Development of International Law in Asia-Korea (DILA-KOREA) is a new academic entity which is responsible for The Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA) along with the Asian Yearbook of International Law (Asian YBIL) and Asia Paciﬁc Ocean Law Institutions Alliance (APOLIA).
Professor Seokwoo LEE of Inha University Law School is serving as Chairman of the DILA-KOREA and is joined with Professor Eon Kyung PARK of Kyung Hee University [Executive Director]; Professor Buhm-Suk BAEK, College of International Studies, Kyung Hee University [Director for Research Planning] Professor Hee Eun LEE of Handong International Law School [Director for Publications]; and Professor Seryon LEE of Chonbuk National University Law School [Director for External Affairs].

The Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA)

The Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA) was established in 1989, at a time when its prime movers believed that economic and political developments in Asia had reached the stage at which they would welcome and beneﬁt substantially from a mechanism to promote and facilitate exchanges among their international law scholars that had failed to develop during the colonial era.

DILA was established to promote the : (a) study of and analysis of topics and issues in the ﬁeld of international law, in particular from an Asian perspective; (b) dissemination of knowledge of, international law in Asia; and (c) promotion of contacts and co-operation between persons and institutions actively dealing with questions of international law relating to Asia.

DILA is concerned with reporting and analyzing developments in the ﬁeld of international law relating to the region, and not primarily with efforts to distinguish particular attitudes, policies or practices as predominately or essentially “Asian”. If they are shown to exist, it would be an interesting by-product of DILA’s essential function, which is to bring about an exchange of views in the expectation that the process would reveal areas of common interest and concern among the States of Asia, and even more importantly, demonstrate that those areas of interest and concern are, in fact, shared by the international community as a whole. Professor Hikmahanto JUWANA of the University of Indonesia is the current Chairman of DILA.

The Asian Yearbook of International Law (Asian YBIL)

Launched in 1991, the Asian Yearbook of International Law is a major internationally-refereed yearbook dedicated to international legal issues as seen primarily from an Asian perspective. It is published by Brill under the auspices of the Foundation for the Development of International Law (DILA).

When the Yearbook was launched, it was the ﬁrst publication of its kind, edited by a team of leading international law scholars from across Asia. It provides a forum for the publication of articles in the ﬁeld of international law, and other Asian international legal topics. The objects of the Yearbook are two-fold. First, to promote research, study and writing in the ﬁeld of international law in Asia; and second, to provide an intellectual platform for the discussion and dissemination of Asian views and practices on contemporary international legal issues.

Each volume of the Yearbook contains articles and shorter notes, a section on State Practice, an overview of the Asian states’ participation in multilateral treaties and succinct analysis of recent international legal developments in Asia, as well as book reviews. This publication is important and to anyone working on international law and in Asian studies.

In keeping with DILA’s commitment to encouraging scholarship in international law as well as in disseminating such scholarship, its Governing Board decided to make the Yearbook open access and is available through Brill Open.

Professor Seokwoo LEE of Inha University Law School and Professor Hee Eun LEE of Handong International Law School are the Co-Editors-in-Chief of the Yearbook commencing with the 2015 edition (volume 21).

Asia Pacific Ocean Law Institutions Alliance (APOLIA)

In 2012, Professor ZOU Keyuan of Lancashire Law School and with appointment at Zhejiang University Guanghua Law School and Professor Seokwoo LEE of Inha University Law School, began to discuss the creation of a new academic organization that would focus its attention on ocean law and policy issues in the Asia-Pacific. The organization was named the Asia Pacific Ocean Law Institutions Alliance (APOLIA) and would be a hybrid organization that would include both institutional and individual participation and associations. After the first official meeting in Incheon, Korea in 2013, the organizers invited Professors Clive SCHOFIELD and Warwick GULLET of Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) of the University of Wollongong to join as co-founders. APOLIA has moved forward to establish a book series entitled Maritime Cooperation in East Asia(MCEA) with Professor Seokwoo LEE and Professor ZOU Keyuan serving as general editors published by Brill, the highly respected and longstanding publisher of international law manuscripts and periodicals.

Another important fruit of APOLIA’s endeavors is an exciting new initiative: the Asia-Pacific Journal of Ocean Law and Policy(APJOLP). The launch of this new, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal recognises the increasing importance of ocean spaces to the Asia-Pacific region– the most dynamic region globally. Not only are the maritime spaces of the Asia-Pacific of great and growing significance to the states of the region, but they are also increasingly contested and under threat. This gives rise to escalating oceans governance challenges. The core objective of the journal is to provide a scholarly forum where these issues can be discussed and analyzed.

The journal is published by Brill on a bi-annual basis. Each issue of the journal includes three to four scholarly articles together with state practice and current legal developments sections. Professor Seokwoo LEE and Professor Clive SCHOFIELD serve as Co-Editors-in-Chief; the state practice section of the journal is edited by Professor Anastasia TELESETSKY of the University of Idaho; and the current legal developments section is the responsibility of Professor Warwick GULLETT of the University of Wollongong.